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Reposted

Randall Munroe

@xkcd.com

Planetary Alignment

xkcd.com/3192/

4-panel comic. (1) PERSON 1 with ponytail: The inspection revealed a few problems. Looks like your planet needs an alignment. PERSON 2: Oh? (2) PERSON 1: Yeah, your magnetic axis is 400 miles off-center from your rotational one. PERSON 2: Is that bad? (3) PERSON 1: The unbalanced magnetic field could cause radiation anomalies over the South Atlantic. Have you noticed any spacecraft equipment failures in that area? PERSON 2: There *have* been a few, actually. (4) PERSON 1: We can give you a loaner planet while yours is in the shop. Is a gas giant OK? PERSON 2: I’d *really* prefer a solid surface. PERSON 1: Sorry, it’s all we have. But it’ll just be for a few days.

January 12, 2026 at 11:50 PM

Reposted

Randall Munroe

@xkcd.com

Apples

xkcd.com/3180/

Comic. [Two people one one side of a pile of seven apples, next to person with long hair next to five apples.] PERSON: Okay, with my seven apples added to your five, we have… let’s se… twelve apples! PERSON 2 [with hands raised]: Incredible! Perfect agreement with the theory! [caption] Experimental Mathematicians

December 16, 2025 at 8:08 PM

Reposted

NightlingBug

@nightlingbug.bsky.social

the line is actually "no JESUS for us meeses," an oblique reference to the fact that, as muppets are unable to take communion, they are forbidden from entering the kingdom of god

December 14, 2025 at 4:13 AM

Reposted

Randall Munroe

@xkcd.com

Hyperacute Interdynamics

xkcd.com/3178/

4-panel comic. (1) [Teacher with medium-length hair talking to students at desks.] TEACHER: Modern physics rests on three main pillars: General relativity, which describes very massive objects, (2) TEACHER: quantum mechanics, which describes very small objects, (3) TEACHER: and hyperacute interdynamics, which describes objects 10-30cm in size and 200-700g in mass. (4) STUDENT [from off-panel]: That last one seems kind of limited. TEACHER: Yeah, but over its domain, it’s *really* precise. Absolutely *nails* squirrels and grapefruit. Someday we hope to unify it with the other two.

December 11, 2025 at 11:00 PM

Reposted

Randall Munroe

@xkcd.com

Beam Dump

xkcd.com/3168/

Comic. [Person with ponytail pointing at diagram while speaking to three other people] PERSON: If the emergency stop is activated, any riders on the waterslide will be diverted into the beam dump, a large graphite block which will safely absorb their momentum. [caption] We regretted hiring an accelerator physicist to design our water park.

November 18, 2025 at 3:40 AM

Reposted

Tom Gauld

@tomgauld.bsky.social

My cartoon for this week’s @newscientist.com

A hi tech laboratory. Technicians work at computer work stations. A glass cylinder contains an unhappy bespectacled figure in a striped top and hat. A scientist explains to two colleagues:
"The subject will be returned to his natural habitat. But now, thanks to our implanted tracking device, we can answer the question 'Where's Wally?' in microseconds rather than hours. "

October 26, 2025 at 3:22 PM

Reposted

Randall Munroe

@xkcd.com

Physics Paths

xkcd.com/3155/

Vertical comic structured like flow chart. (1) Einstein had an insight that overturned physics, thus proving his value. (2) I hope *I* have value. I’ll try to have an insight that overturns physics, to check. (3) [Time Passes] (4) Oh no! My insight didn’t overturn physics! But I don’t think I’m worthless… [arrows to two different options] (5a) Healthy Path: Maybe this was not a well-thought-out test of my value. (5b) Path of Ruin: The establishment must be *suppressing* my insight!

October 16, 2025 at 8:12 PM

Reposted

Randall Munroe

@xkcd.com

Window Screen

xkcd.com/3151/

4-panel comic. (1) [person in front of window, shaped like a trapezoid with a curved top] This weekend, I had to make an oversized screen for a porch window. (2) [person sitting with hands on head surrounded by images of assorted equations and measurements] It involved countless tiny problems, each somehow way harder than it should be. Oblique angles. Curved edges. Noncoplanarity. (3) [person in front of window with screen on it, with building detritus strewn on the ground] ...I solved them all. I measured precisely. I did trigonometry. I made custom parts. And it fit *perfectly.* No gaps, no ripples. (4) [person typing at computer] I know that your foundation normally limits its purview to physics, medicine, peace, chemistry, and literature. However, if you review the attached photos showing how well the screen fits into the...

October 7, 2025 at 7:43 PM

Reposted

Tom Gauld

@tomgauld.bsky.social

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com

p.s. this week I am on a USA/Canada tour with my new book. Details and preorder links at tomgauld.com

Panel 1. image of a huge nuclear plant.
“Reactor Overheating”

2. A worker in a hazmat suit works at a computer. The screen reads:
“Press cancel to avoid critical overload”

3 - 9. The worker continues to type at the computer. The screen changes in each panel and reads:
“Enter password to confirm”
“Incorrect password”
“Incorrect password”
“Do you want to reset your password?”
“Reset link has been sent to your email”
“Please choose a new password”
“New password can't be the same as old password”
The colour gets hotter in each panel. Starting blue in 1 and ending in red in 9.

Panel 10. Wide view. The entire earth is blown up.

September 15, 2025 at 5:46 PM

Reposted

Randall Munroe

@xkcd.com

Reading a Big Number

xkcd.com/3102/

Comic. Thought Process While Reading A Big Number: 54,000,000,000,000,000,000,0000,0000,054,000"000,00c2ef46
[comments progress along the line, approximately every 3 digits] (1) 54! Great! I know that number. Solid start. (2) Oh, a comma and some zeros. Cool. Must be at least 54 thousand. (3) A second comma! I wonder if we’re talking population or money. (4) Yikes! If this is money, it’s a *lot* of money. (5) Why am I reading this? Whatever this number is, I’m not going to be able to visualize it. (6) All right, either someone made a unit conversion error or this is one of those incomprehensible astronomy numbers. (7) [4 zeroes between commas instead of 3]] Oh no. Is this a misplaced comma or an extra zero? I guess we’ll see if the next group has two zeros or three. If it’s two, we can at least hope the digits are right. (8) [4 zeroes between commas] Oh *no*. (9) [repeat of the digits 54] What is happening. (10) [a quotation mark in place of comma] Someone messed up real bad. (11) [final digits are c2ef46, cut off] Someone messed up real bad and I hope it wasn’t me.

June 18, 2025 at 8:36 PM

Reposted

Meredith Whittaker

@meredithmeredith.bsky.social

...he says to Signal's president

June 17, 2025 at 3:15 PM

Reposted

Randall Munroe

@xkcd.com

Good Science

xkcd.com/3101/

5-panel comic. (1) [teacher with long hair next to whiteboard] TEACHER: I’m supposed to give you the tools to do good science. (2) [teacher addressing students] But what *are* those tools? Methodology is hard and there are so many ways to get incorrect results. What is the magic ingredient that makes for good science? (3) TEACHER: To figure it out, I ran a regression with all the factors people say are important: [embedded list in sub-panel, cut off at end] Outcome variable: correct scientific results. Predictors: collaboration; skepticism of others’ claims; questioning your own beliefs; trying to falsify hypotheses; checking citations; statistical rigor; blinded analysis; financial disclosure; open data (4) TEACHER: The regression says two ingredients are the most crucial: 1) genuine curiosity about the answer to a question, and 2) ammonium hydroxide. (5) STUDENT: Wait, why did *ammonia* score so high? How did it even get on the list? LONG HAIR: ...And now you’re doing good science!

June 12, 2025 at 8:28 PM

Reposted

A Profound Waste of Time

@apwot.bsky.social

DON'T SUPPORT THESE MAGS BECAUSE THEY ARE VIBRANT EXAMPLES OF TOP TIER GAMES WRITING AND DESIGN, DO IT FOR THE S-TIER SMELL 👃✨📖

madeupdoctor.bsky.social @madeupdoctor.bsky.social · Jun 7

Lots of people have said lots of good things about APWOT this week and they're all true.

So as I sit here with my APWOT4, all I have to add is...

Man, do these things smell amazing.

A Profound Waste of Time @apwot.bsky.social · Jun 3

The APWOT Trilogy Reprint campaign is NOW LIVE ON KICKSTARTER! 📚

Help us bring back these 3 timeless publications that are as creative and playful as the people and games featured within them: ⭐️ kck.st/4kjrqhj ⭐️

Sound on! 🔉

June 9, 2025 at 10:22 PM

Reposted

Hank Green

@hankgreen.bsky.social

Spotted on the most recent episode of Taskmaster! 🥹

Alex Horne is wearing a pair of of my cancer socks which I designed during chemo and sold to raise money to increase access to cancer care

June 8, 2025 at 1:35 AM

Reposted

Tom Gauld

@tomgauld.bsky.social

My cartoon for this week’s @newscientist.com

A six panel cartoon.

Panel one:
Title: Learn to read with Physics
Lesson One: two and three-letter words
(image of a smiling book and particle)

Panel two:
A friendly scientist enters a colourful lab carryinh a coiffee and papers.
Text: The Doc is in the lab.

Panel three:
She has put on eye protectors and started a machine
Text: She put on the ion ray.

Panel four:
The machine has caused a small fire. She looks aghast.
Text: Pop! The ray lit the gas.

Panel five:
She runs from the burning lab
Text: The lab is too hot!

Panel six:
She sits on the grass. In the background the ruins of the lab smoulder.
Text: The Doc is sad.

June 8, 2025 at 8:17 AM

madeupdoctor.bsky.social

@madeupdoctor.bsky.social

Lots of people have said lots of good things about APWOT this week and they're all true.

So as I sit here with my APWOT4, all I have to add is...

Man, do these things smell amazing.

A Profound Waste of Time @apwot.bsky.social · Jun 3

The APWOT Trilogy Reprint campaign is NOW LIVE ON KICKSTARTER! 📚

Help us bring back these 3 timeless publications that are as creative and playful as the people and games featured within them: ⭐️ kck.st/4kjrqhj ⭐️

Sound on! 🔉

June 7, 2025 at 10:33 PM

Reposted

Randall Munroe

@xkcd.com

Mass Spec

xkcd.com/3094/

[Person with ponytail wearing lab coat hands balloon to another person in front of a springboard, a magnet hanging from above, and then a target] PERSON WITH PONYTAIL to Person 2: Rub this balloon against your head, then go jump past that magnet toward the target on the wall. [caption] Before the bathroom scale was invented, the only way to weigh people was mass spectrometry.

May 29, 2025 at 7:26 PM

Reposted

Hank Green

@hankgreen.bsky.social

20,000 leagues below sea level is in outer space.

May 23, 2025 at 3:05 AM

Reposted

Randall Munroe

@xkcd.com

Sail Physics xkcd.com/3090

May 19, 2025 at 8:15 PM

Reposted

Hank Green

@hankgreen.bsky.social

The Earth doesn’t “go around the Sun” the Earth goes in a straight line through an area of spacetime that bends around the Sun and I think that’s neat.

May 12, 2025 at 2:59 AM